Eurasia Press & News
Leaders of the Republic of Moldova’s ruling Alliance for European Integration (AIE) yesterday met to begin negotiations for a new government coalition, following parliamentary elections held on Sunday, Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vlad Filat said, according to actmedia.eu. The Liberal Democrats, which came in second in the cote following the Communist Party, also had a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the results of the election and the offer to be made to parties with which they intend to negotiate, Filat said.
AIE parties narrowly beat the communists in Sunday’s election, but final results showed that they still lacked the majority needed to name a pro-Western president and end the political stalemate. With all votes counted the election, the third in Moldova in less than two years, the three-member alliance had 52.1 per cent of the vote, the election commission said, according to Al Jazeera. The figure translated into 59 seats for the coalition, just two seats short of the 61 needed to elect the president and overcome Communist Party resistance. The Communist Party took 39.3 per cent of the ballots and 42 of the 101 seats, the commission said, enough to continue a political stalemate that has left the country without a full-time president for more than a year.
The pro-Western alliance is made up of Filat’s Liberal Democrats, ex communist Marian Lupu’s Democrats, and acting President Mihai Ghimpu’s Liberals. Filat’s party came in well ahead of the others and is set to assume the leading role in any future leadership negotiations.
Filat on Monday called for the three non-communist parties to form a new ruling coalition, and then to negotiate with the communists to end political gridlock. “We will work with the communists (…) to move the country forward,” he said, according to an Infotag report.
Communist leader Vladimir Voronin said an alliance between his party and “a smaller party” deserting the three- party pro-Europe coalition was the best way to break Moldova’s political deadlock. Ghimpu rejected any potential alliance with Voronin, saying “the worst of all possibilities is the communists.” But Lupu appeared to signal possible willingness to break ranks with the Liberals and Liberal Democrats, telling the Interfax news agency “Let them come to us, we are ready to talk to anyone.”
